Okay, if you had met this French Poodle driving a golf cart and wearing designer shades, wouldn’t you think his name was Pierre? I was a bit taken aback when Suzanne took this suave gent’s photo and said his name was “Sam”. (At least he wasn’t riding in a Smart Car…)
Speaking of names, we spied this guy (Varanus komodoensis) at Animal Kingdom the other day… I have always wanted to visit his island home in Indonesia, because I love Indonesian food, especially nasi goreng. But if I were to visit Komodo National Park in Indonesia, I might be on the menu for this beastie, the Komodo Dragon, Lizard, or Monitor. He has several names, but all of them mean “Bad Dude”. Komodos are omnivorous; that means they will eat anything and everything, although they prefer carrion. (Yum!) This smaller komodo is only about 7 feet long and weighs a mere 130 lbs. Komodos have been known to attack visiting tourists, and to dig up human graves for a late night snack (oh, Yuck!), leading the locals to put boulders atop their gravesites. (What kind of upbringing did these lizards get to prefer carrion to meatloaf, I wonder?)
Speaking of food… as I mentioned previously, nasi goreng, not carrion, is one of my favorites. It has been called the national dish of Indonesia, but is also a Malaysian staple. It is often eaten for breakfast, and is basically leftover rice from the previous night’s dinner, with just about anything added, but chicken, pork, eggs, pepper, shallot, tomato, soy sauce, and chili are the most common additives. It is usually very, very spicy compared to Chinese fried rice. You can find nasi goreng in private homes, restaurants or street vendors’ stalls.
Word for the Day: menhir, n. a large single upright stone, erected by prehistoric people and thought to have been used for astronomical observations, found in the British Isles and northern France [Mid-19th C. Directly or via French from Breton maen-hir, literally “long stone,” from men “stone” (source of English dolmen) + hir “long”. (I know at least one person with his/her mind not on astronomy will have another interpretation of this image, but please remember that this is a family blog.)
As we were driving the other day, My Lovely, Sensitive, Compassionate Bride noted a great bumper sticker on the back of a pick-me-up truck loaded with fishing rods that read, “Fish Fear Me”. I asked her if she would order me one, and she smiled wickedly as she asked, “Are you sure “Fish Laugh At Me” wouldn’t be more appropriate?” I didn’t speak to her for an hour after that snide remark.